


Before you even begin

by CirrusGrey



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Canon-Typical Web Shenanigans, Episode Related, Inevitability, M/M, Mentioned Basira Hussain, Short, episode 195 spoilers, resignation, stream of consciousness narration, this one was like pulling teeth yeesh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29560632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CirrusGrey/pseuds/CirrusGrey
Summary: SPOILERS FOR MAG 195!!!Jon does not want to go to Hill Top Road. But he will.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	Before you even begin

**Author's Note:**

> _It doesn't matter what you weave if you're caught in a web before you even begin._  
>  ~ "Twisted Threads" by the Mechanisms

_ "Mr. Spider wants more." _

They're the last words Jon hears before he and Basira pass out of range of the tape, his childhood nightmare narrated in his own voice. It sends a chill down his spine, a tingling, itching feeling of dread that makes him shiver and want to run.

He tries to shake it off, glancing to the side at Basira. She's striding ahead, her face fixed in determination, unwavering. He's glad he was able to solicit her help; despite their fraught history, she is a true friend, and she carries herself with a steady certainty that grounds him in the midst of his anxious thoughts.

Her nose wrinkles as she spots another spider web, strung thick across a bush at the side of the road as they pass. Oxford is unchanged under the camera's influence, for the most part, but the proliferation of cobwebs draping the landscape around them is far more than it ought to be for a normal sunny day. Basira is clearly put off by them, occasionally sending glances at Jon to see if he has noticed, and if he shares her apprehension. Or perhaps just to see if he's drifted off again, lost in the echo chamber of his own thoughts without the Eye to guide him.

She can't know just how apprehensive he really is, of course. She doesn't know about his history with the Web. When she'd asked if he was okay to continue on this rescue mission, her concerns about his capability had everything to do with the disorientation of being cut off from the Eye, and nothing to do with the creeping dread of many-legged things that shivers down his spine and makes him feel like a child again, eight years old and helpless to do anything but watch as someone dies in his place.

Helpless. He certainly feels that way, now. His legs quake with tiredness, being returned to a world where sleep means something, and he cannot  _ know  _ what threats they are facing until he sees them with his own two eyes. He cannot fight, with only his frail human body to defend himself. Basira still has her gun, though. Perhaps that will be enough.

He wonders if it was inevitable, that it would end like this. He's spent his whole life fleeing the Web, chasing down answers and explanations for what had happened to him as a child, and in the end all it has done is driven him right back into the Spider's arms.

And it  _ does  _ feel like an ending; despite his reassurances to the contrary, he does not think he will get the chance to return to London, and tell Melanie of Helen's fate. He can feel the noose tightening around him, a thousand tiny threads of consequence and decision drawing him inexorably toward Hill Top Road.

He does not want to follow them. Doing so feels like the closing of a circle, the shutting of a door. As though his feet are treading a path that was laid out for him as a child, and that he was always, always, fated to return to.

He does not have to follow them. No matter how drawn in he feels, his actions are his own, and he could turn around right now and leave the bubble of the camera's influence, accept the fading memories of this short while spent inside, and return to his place of power none the worse for wear.

He won't, though. The webs have been laid, the trap has been sprung. Inescapable, no matter how aware he is that he is walking right into it. There is precious little in this world that would cause him to walk willingly, and with full knowledge of his actions, into the heart of the Spider's power. But Annabelle Cane has Martin.

And for Martin? For Martin, Jon would do anything.


End file.
